Antony to Army & MoD: Streamline Acquisition, Reduce time for Trial & Evaluation

New Delhi, Apr 2 (ANI): Defence Minister A.K. Antony today reviewed various issues and proposals relating to acquisition for the Indian Army, and asked them to streamline procedures to prevent slippages in the future.

The meeting was attended among others by Chief of Army Staff General V.K. Singh, Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma, DG Acquisition Vivek Rae and the top brass of Indian Army.

During the meeting Antony directed the Army to streamline its acquisition process in such a manner so that accountability can be fixed in case of any slippages.

He also asked the officials of the Ministry of Defence and the Army to examine the possibility of compressing the time taken for technical evaluations and trials.

Antony favoured delegation of more financial powers to Service headquarters if it can lead to speedier acquisition of equipment, platforms and systems for the Services.

Another meeting will be held next month to review the progress made on the decisions taken today. (ANI)

Amid allegations of bribery, defence minister AK Antony Monday asked the army to streamline its purchase process in a manner that accountability can be fixed in the event of slippages. This was conveyed by Antony to the army brass led by its chief Gen VK Singh at a meeting to finalise the army's capital acquisition proposals at the South Block.

This is the first time Antony and Gen Singh came face-to-face since the acrimony over the army chief's allegation of a bribe offer made to him by a retired officer and the leak of a secret letter from him to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on gaps in defence preparedness.

The meeting was in continuation of earlier review meetings held in September last year and January.

"At the meeting, Antony directed the army to streamline its acquisition process in such a manner that accountability can be fixed in case of any slippages," a defence ministry spokesperson said in New Delhi.

Antony also asked officials of the defence ministry and the army to examine the possibility of compressing the time taken for technical evaluations and trials.

It is assessed that the services and the defence ministry take about seven years for completing the procurement processes of any major equipment.

He favoured delegation of more financial powers to the service headquarters if it can lead to speedier acquisition of equipment, platforms and systems for the services.

The other competent financial authority for defence acquisition are the defence secretary for deals worth Rs.75 crore, defence minister Rs.500 crore, defence ministry in concurrence with the finance minister for Rs.1,000 crore, and the cabinet committee on security (CCS) above that.

Among those at the meeting were Defence Secretary Sashi Kant Sharma, Director General (Acquisition) Vivek Rae and senior army officials.

Among the major army acquisitions that are pending are the Rs.20,000-crore (over $4 billion) worth of artillery guns to replace the ageing inventory and air defence weapons.

Gen. Singh had in his latest letter to the prime minister written in March pointed out that the army had major gaps in its air defence, artillery, night vision capabilities and infantry.

In an unrelated event, the army chief had given an interview to the media in which he claimed that a retired lieutenant general had offered him a bribe of Rs.14 crore for approving a contract for 600 trucks for the army.

Both the developments had caused a major uproar in parliament. Some political parties wanted the army chief to be sacked.

The Intelligence Bureau has been asked to find out who leaked the letter from the army chief to the Prime Minister.

Such leaks do more good to the country than harm considering we have so much corruption. Even corrupt politicians don't like turning red in the face after all. The next time they try messing around, they will remember. Hopefully, Antony is not made the scapegoat for this drama.

Such leaks do more good to the country than harm considering we have so much corruption. Even corrupt politicians don't like turning red in the face after all. The next time they try messing around, they will remember. Hopefully, Antony is not made the scapegoat for this drama.

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yes we all know that , we can see all the thing but we cant do anything .

dont you fell now our blood becomes cold or we are just accepting that thing.

After army chief Gen. V.K. Singh raised the red flag on dwindling ammunition stockpiles and the sorry state of battle preparedness, defence minister A.K. Antony on Monday snapped into action looking for ways to shake up lethargic weaponbuying procedures.

Antony met top generals and officials handling acquisitions to find a way out. He later chaired the monthly meeting of the defence acquisition council (DAC), the highest decisionmaking authority in the ministry, and cleared the Long Term Integrated Perspective Plan (LTIPP) 2012-27 and 12th defence plan (2012-17).

The LTIPP is a vision document setting a progress path for the three services while the defence plan is for immediate implementation in a compressed five-year span. Facing criticism for not taking decisions, Antony ensured that the outcome of the DAC meeting is made public, in a departure from convention when deliberations in the apex body were left confidential.

In his meeting with Gen. Singh, the defence ministry chose to wash its hands off delays as Antony directed the army to streamline its acquisition process and fix responsibility for the slippages.

He also asked defence ministry officials and the army to cut down the time taken for field evaluation of new weapon systems. At the moment, the procurement process is spread anywhere between 87 and 130 weeks.

One of the ways to speed up defence purchases was to give more financial powers to the service chiefs so that they do not have to obtain clearance from the defence ministry for smallticket purchases.

Antony has sought the views of the three services if the move would help speed up acquisition. The DAC meeting also approved major changes in the offset policy. Under current rules, the winner of any contract above `300 crore has to invest 30 per cent of the money in India's defence sector.

The LTIPP sets different targets for the army, air force and navy.

In case of the army, its main areas of thrust in the coming years would continue to be enhancing combat ratio vis-Ã -vis China and upgrade the combat edge against Pakistan. It would also look to build capability to meet collusive threat in a twofront conflict situation.

This would require massive building of infrastructure along the China border. In the next four-five years, the army wants to concentrate on fire power, air defence, nightfighting capability, sub-conventional and urban terrorist threat, manoeuvre and mobility, battlefield transparency and combined operations.

The major challenge before the Indian Air Force (IAF) is to increase the strength of its fighter squadrons. It is one of the lowest at the moment but in the LTIPP, it wants to take it up to 42 squadrons. The navy's perspective plan is aimed at increasing its fleet strength to around 150 warships.

At the moment, the navy has 132 ships and 14 submarines and 216 aircraft.
VECTRA CHIEF QUIZZED

The CBI on Monday questioned Vectra Group chief Ravi Rishi for his role in the controversy over the Tatra-BEML-army deal.

A CBI official confirmed his questioning, which started in the afternoon and went on for close to four hours.

Sources said charted accountants and a company secretary employed with Rishi also appeared before the agency to provide it with documents concerning the deal.

Rishi is set for a long stay in India, where he arrived to participate in the Defence Expo.

St. Antony needs to reassess his own style of working. At the first hint of trouble he cancels the entire tender rather than go after the corrupt people. The losing party has been taking advantage of this to derail the whole deal.
We are seeing something like this unfolding in the MMRCA deal.

Even one cancels a tender because of corrupt practices, the inquiry should be fast tracked and the guilty brought to book. If the defence producer gives the assurance thereafter that they will not enter deals in a shady manner, the blacklisting should be lifted and deals with them carefully monitored.

Quality equipment because of some shady dealing should not forever be declared 'out of bounds'.